On his way towards the town’s Northern exit, Artyom was assailed by a wonderful aroma. Grilled cuts of fatty meat, fried batter, and a sheer multitude of delicious yet certainly unhealthy foods wafted through the air. Ethereal wisps gently embraced the man from Earth with their tantalizing scents and promises of immediate luxury. And for the first time on his mission, he felt true weakness.


    Artyom looked into his bag and counted only a handful of silver and bronze coins, yet not a single gold. He’d spent his last of his highest denomination on the fancy suit that was currently stashed in his room. What he did see in the gold’s place however were a handful of TOAL’s ration bars.


    His face fell as he looked between that and the many food stalls set up in the city’s outer district. Since this area was populated by the working class, the food would likely be more affordable, maybe in the range of a few bronze coins?


    Artyom knew he normally wouldn’t be concerned with something as trivial as his taste buds during a mission, but the strange headache he had from last night seemed to come back just then, and something greasy was more likely to make it go away than a cube of compressed sawdust.


    “Maybe a small bite for flavor, and the ration bars for the rest of the way?” he mumbled to himself as he fished out a handful of coins and took them to the nearest stall.


    Artyom bought himself a small paper bag of some sort of fried dough balls. They were reminiscent of Takoyaki since they were also made in a metal pan filled with round holes of similar size, but there wasn’t any filling and they tasted sweet.


    The man from Earth slowly chewed one, feeling the mildly gummy dough stick to his teeth before reaching into the bag and popping another one into his mouth.


    Halfway through, Artyom switched to a ration bar and cringed as he quickly worked his way through it, before switching back to the delicious treat.


    Once the early lunch was over, he realized his headache was still there, and in fact a touch worse.


    Not wanting to dawdle any longer, Artyom headed towards the town’s exit. Waiting around any longer would likely make the headache even worse. Once he was outside, he activated his speed spells and headed straight towards his destination.


    <hr>


    Half an hour later, Artyom reached into his back and pulled out the map.


    It took about ten seconds to realize he’d passed the landmark he was supposed to make a turn at almost ten minutes ago.


    Artyom was ready to curse his headache, but he realized it had vanished. Looking at the sky, he also noticed that it was now just past noon, which was when Lensa of the hero’s party said the goddess’ blessing would take effect.


    “Looks like it has me feeling better! I don’t feel particularly stronger, but it’s already pulled its weight as far as I’m concerned.”


    Once Artyom turned back and found the landmark he’d previously missed, he continued down the correct path this time, which led him down a narrow forest trail.


    The trees that surrounded him were a mix of evergreen and deciduous, all of them covered in vibrant green foliage at the current time of year. The crisp air and sound of distant woodland creatures filled Artyom with a sense of calm that beckoned him to sink his full attention into the beautiful surrounding world. Yet in doing so he ended up missing even more landmarks, even if they stood out on the trail, and once again got lost.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.


    “I knew I should’ve taken a right turn at alabaster rock! But I should still be close by,” said Artyom as he pulled up his map and turned it upside down after half a minute.


    He was currently in a small clearing. The floor was covered in grass, able to grow due to the additional light that filtered through the sparser canopy, and seemed to lead to a single banana tree in the center. It extended far beyond any other tree in the forest, to the point Artyom was surprised he hadn’t seen it earlier. There was no fruit growing on it, but that made sense as banana trees only flowered once in their lifetime, and this tree had likely been growing for an incredibly long time.


    Rather than focus on the strange sight, Artyom looked back at his map to get his bearings.


    It only took another five minutes to realize that the banana tree was right next to the entrance of the dungeon, and after a quick walk, the man from Earth reached his destination.


    Crystal Kobold Crossing looked much like any other cave entrance. It featured a large, rocky mouth that led down into a dark recess, and a musty odor wafted from not too far inside. What stood out however was the drawing of a skull carved into the stone at the top of the entrance.


    “Probably means danger,” said Artyom to himself as he began walking in.


    It didn’t take long before the light from outside had completely disappeared from the subterranean world.


    “Pitchblack Vision.” Artyom cast the spell on himself and suddenly a myriad gray-blue filled his eyes. His surroundings were visible in clear detail, albeit with no real difference in color beyond anything grayscale. It was still more than enough to find his way through. Not to mention enough to find a little surprise.


    Artyom bent down and pulled on a taught string that extended across the cavern floor. As he did, a pile of boulders netted to the ceiling just above it immediately came toppling down. Artyom was already out of the way well before they were close to the ground, but the loud noise they made as they struck the ground and each other threw him slightly off.


    “Traps shouldn’t be that big of a deal, but it does show that someone’s living here and they don’t want visitors. But watching out for all of them sounds boring… I think I’ll just run through them instead. They can’t hurt me if I’m too hard or they’re too slow!”


    Artyom bent down in a sprinter’s stance, cast Olympian’s Speed on himself along with Tungsten Body, and bolted off. Several more traps activated within the span of a minute as the man from Earth juked and weaved through the cave.


    A swinging ax missed him by three feet, and a falling net was blown to the side just by his tailwind.


    Artyom laughed loudly alongside the cacophony he created, not a care in the world to bring him down.


    However, a change asserted itself in that reality as he reached the end of the tunnel and found himself in a large room. Its floor was circular and at least fifty feet in diameter, with the ceiling rising to twice that, and several stalagmites and stalactites were littered both above and below.


    In the distance, a large figure ambled around. It had a bipedal humanoid frame, albeit heavily rotund, and it carried a large pickaxe on its shoulder. The figure turned towards Artyom with a glare.


    “Maybe I should’ve been more quiet?”


    What followed was a wave of fear that spread through the air and through Artyom, shaking him to his core. Something about this sensation was familiar, but a strange mental haze made it hard to think about anything other than running away.


    Artyom immediately canceled all his other spells to focus his magic entirely into a speed spell, and turned around to run.


    He ran into a wooden club and crumpled to the floor.


    As the world around him faded, he could hear a deep voice booming in contempt.


    “How did a dumb peasant manage to get so far? Whatever, I’m not about to turn away free food, lock him up in the cells. I’ll eat him when I get hungry.”


    A group of short, scaled figures ran up to Artyom and began dragging him down a hallway, and then everything went black.